Just in from Oort for ’13: comet with ‘amazing tail

A comet due to pass near Earth in 2013 just might outshine the moon in the night sky.

Reuters reportsthat the comet, ISON, could appear in the sky as early as October 2013. It will be 1.2 million miles from the sun next Nov. 28, according to NASA astronomer Donald Yeomans.

Look closely. That dot in the middle might be comet ISON. (Ligustri Rolando/NASA)

From the report come reasons why all of this might not happen, as well:

Comet ISON could break apart as it nears the sun, or it could fail to produce a tail of ice particles visible from Earth.

Celestial visitors like Comet ISON hail from the Oort Cloud, a cluster of frozen rocks and ices that circle the sun about 50,000 times farther away than Earth’s orbit. Every so often, one will be gravitationally bumped out from the cloud and begin a long solo orbit around the sun.